Poll: Scant global confidence in Trump on foreign affairs

The reviews from around the globe are in and they show scant confidence outside the United States in President Donald Trump's ability to do the right thing on international affairs, with fewer than 3 in 10 respondents expressing confidence, according to a Pew Research Center survey of attitudes toward Trump in more than three dozen countries.

Most of those surveyed also disapprove of Trump's major policies, including his promise to erect a physical wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico, and temporarily halting travel from six mostly Muslim countries.

In terms of personal traits, more than half see the U.S. president as a strong leader, but that positive view is outweighed by larger majorities who describe the real estate developer and former reality TV star as arrogant, intolerant or dangerous.

Among the 37 countries Pew surveyed, Trump scored higher marks than his predecessor, President Barack Obama, in two: Russia and Israel.

Pew has produced this survey annually since 2002, starting with the first term of George W. Bush. The edition released late Monday is the first conducted since Trump took office in January.

According to the survey, a median of 22 per cent across all the countries surveyed expressed confidence that Trump will do the right thing when it comes to international affairs. That means that if the results from each country are ranked in order, 22 per cent is the midpoint, with the percentage expressing confidence in Trump falling above or below that point in equal numbers of countries.

The 22 per cent rating marks a steep drop from the closing years of Obama's presidency, when a median of 64 per cent expressed confidence in Obama' ability to direct America's role in the world.

Pew Research

Trump's largest base of support comes from Filipinos, 69 per cent of whom say they have confidence in him. Nations in which more than half of the public offers positive opinions of Trump include Nigeria and Vietnam, 58 per cent each; Israel, 56 per cent and Russia, 53 per cent.

The results are based on telephone and face-to-face interviews conducted among 40,447 respondents in 37 countries in all regions of the world between Feb. 16 and May 8.

Bush's ratings fell after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 and never fully recovered in some countries. Across 26 nations that Pew surveyed near the end of Bush's term, a median of only 27 per cent had confidence in Bush's ability to handle international affairs.

Ratings for America's president rose in 2009 after Obama took office. There was a dip in confidence in some countries that coincided with Obama's increased use of drone strikes and a National Security Agency spying scandal, but Obama enjoyed a median confidence rating of 64 per cent across 37 countries surveyed near the end of his second term.

The survey found widespread disapproval of some of Trump's major policies. The promised U.S.-Mexico border wall is opposed by a median of 76 per cent across the 37 countries, rising to 94 per cent in Mexico.

More than 7 in 10 disagree with Trump's proposals to pull the U.S. out of a landmark climate change agreement and withdraw from multinational trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trump has pulled the U.S. out of both agreements, although the survey was conducted before his June 2 announcement on exiting the Paris climate accord.

More than 60 per cent disapprove of Trump's proposal for a temporary ban on people entering the U.S. from certain majority Muslim countries. More than half the respondents in four countries, Hungary, Israel, Poland and Russia, support the proposal. Opposition was strong in several largely Muslim countries, including Jordan, Lebanon and Senegal.

Pew Research

U.S. courts had blocked two versions of Trump's travel ban, but he won a partial victory Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration to go forward with a limited version of the ban. The high court also agreed to hear arguments in the case in October. The ban applies to visitors from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The Pew survey also found opposition to Trump's proposal to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, which he has yet to act on.

While 55 per cent see Trump as a strong leader, larger majorities of those surveyed said they see him as arrogant, 75 per cent; intolerant, 65 per cent; and dangerous, 62 per cent.

Amid federal and congressional investigations into possible election-year co-ordination between Trump and Russian government officials, Russia is one of two countries to give Trump higher marks than it did Obama. Israel also scored Trump higher than Obama. Obama fell out of favour with Israel after negotiating the nuclear deal with Iran, an enemy of the Jewish state.